Year in Review 2005

asdf United Nations For more information on United Nations peace operations, visit the United Nations website at http://www.un.org/peace/ Produced by the Peace and Security Section of the United Nations Department of Public Information DPI/2420 — February 2006 — 10M TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 2005: A good year for peacekeeping operations Introduction 2 UN establishes the Peacebuilding Commission 3 Sierra Leone: A success story in peacekeeping 4 Liberia: Elections mark a historic turning point 6 Burundi: A major breakthrough in peacekeeping 7 Haiti: MINUSTAH prepares for overdue elections 9 Côte d’Ivoire: Peace efforts move on despite a succession of delays 11 Sudan: New mission deploys, provides assistance to the African Union in Darfur 12 DR Congo: Robust posture hastens political process 14 Kosovo: Status talks get underway 15 Ethiopia-Eritrea: Political stalemate continues amid rising tension 16 Georgia: UNOMIG police mark two years Major peacekeeping operations 17 Other DPKO-led missions 18 Afghanistan: Beyond the Bonn Agreement 19 Iraq: UNAMI underpins the transitional political process 20 UNSCO mediates, coordinates UN work in the Middle-East Other peace operations 20 Political missions 21 DPKO stresses conduct and a duty of care Challenges in peace operations 22 Gender in peacekeeping: An evolving field of practice 24 UN peacekeeping missions 26 UN political and peace-building missions 28 Peacekeeping contributions Peace operations facts and figures 29 Peacekeeping 2005 in a snap shot INTRODUCTION 2005: A good year for peacekeeping operations For UN peacekeeping, 2005 was in trations, monitoring human rights and integrated mission offices with man- many ways a banner year. shoring up fragile peace agreements. dates of longer-term peacebuilding are under way in both those countries. After having launched four new opera- During the same year, two external tions in 2004 and the Sudan mission in reports credited UN peace operations In Kosovo, the UN peacekeeping oper- 2005, the Department of Peacekeeping with a quantifiable reduction in ation worked to hold the local adminis- Operations (DPKO) was, at its peak international conflict and war-relat- tration to standards of governance to during the year, directing 18 peace ed deaths. prepare for talks on final status which operations across the world, compris- were to begin in early 2006. In the DRC, ing some 85,000 troops, police and A number of major milestones were UN troops, in a series of operations, civilian personnel and directly affecting achieved in 2005: a large peace support progressed dramatically toward restor- some 200 million men, women and operation began deployment in Sudan ing stability in Eastern Congo. In Côte children in host countries. to bolster the Comprehensive Peace d’Ivoire, the mission wrestled with seri- Agreement signed in March between ous challenges to the peace agreement The Department of Political Affairs north and south Sudan. Missions led by of 2003, but a crisis was averted when (DPA) also led eight special political DPKO and DPA supported the organi- all parties accepted Charles Konan missions and peacebuilding support zation of landmark elections in Banny as interim prime minister in offices in West and Central Africa, Afghanistan, Burundi, Liberia, Iraq and December. In Georgia, the UN observ- Central Asia, Iraq and the Middle East. the Democratic Republic of the Congo, er mission continued to monitor the which held its first democratic vote in ceasefire and promote a political settle- As the expression of the collective will four decades, during which the popula- ment of the conflict. of the international community to tion approved a draft constitution. assist societies moving from armed Plans for parliamentary elections in Regrettably, no progress was made in over- conflict to peace, peacekeeping contin- Haiti and in the DRC were in the works coming the deadlock in Western Sahara, ued to grow in scope and complexity. for early 2006. and stalemate persisted in the peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia. New missions tackled a range ofcom- Two peacekeeping operations closed— plex and multidisciplinary tasks includ- in Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste— Other long-standing UN operations ing disarming combatants, organizing having successfully achieved their man- remained on the ground in the Middle democratic elections, building local dates to solidify peace and help expand East, India and Pakistan and Cyprus, police and security capacities, restoring and strengthen the authority of demo- continuing to provide much needed public order, running public adminis- cratically elected governments. New stability in their areas of operation. t e r r Nearly two dozen countries contributed e P uniformed personnel for the first time e n i t to UN peace operations, bringing the r a total number of troop and police con- M y tributing countries to 107, with b o Bangladesh the largest troop contribu- t o h tor by the end of the year (9,758 P troops), and the U.S. the largest finan- N U cial contributor, accounting for 27 per- cent of peacekeeping’s $5.03 billion budget for July 2005 through June 2006. The need for long-term efforts to maintain sustainable peace convinced UN Member States at the 2005 Summit to create a Peacebuilding Commission, an advisory body which will work to coordinate and ensure long-term international commitments to countries Cibitoke woman voting in Burundi election, 7 April 2005 emerging from conflict. YEAR IN REVIEW 2005 1 UN establishes Peacebuilding Commission As a major outcome of reform initiatives endorsed by world leaders at the September Summit, the General Assembly established a new Peacebuilding Commission on 20 December to help rebuild and stabilize countries emerging from conflict. As studies have shown that up to half those countries can relapse into conflict within five years of a peace agreement, this decision could mark a watershed in UN efforts to help states and societies manage the difficult transition from war to peace. The Commission will for the first time bring together all the major actors concerned with a country emerging from conflict to decide on a long-term peacebuilding strategy. By establishing a link between immediate post-conflict efforts on the one hand and long-term recovery and development efforts on the other, it will fill a previously existing gap in the UN system. The Commission will focus attention on reconstruction and institution-building and improve coordination within and outside the UN system so that international attention does not wane during the crucial post-conflict years. The Commission, an advisory body, will be made up of 31 members: seven from the Security Council, including the five permanent members; another seven from the Economic and Social Council; five from the top 10 financial contrib- utors to the United Nations; and five from the 10 nations that supply the most troops for peacekeeping missions. Seven others will be chosen to ensure geographical balance by regional groupings. Representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other institutional donors will be expected to attend meetings. Authorities of the country under consideration by the Commission – as well as its neighbors – will also play an active role in the process. The idea for a Peacebuilding Commission evolved from the perceived need at the UN for a coordinated, coherent and integrated approach to post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation. The Commission is expected to address the special needs of individual countries emerging from conflict and to help prevent future conflicts by helping parties to end hostilities and work towards recovery, reconstruction and development and in mobilizing international assistance. The Commission will be supported by a small Peacebuilding Support Office, which will provide the Commission with the information and analysis needed to coordinate UN's peacebuilding efforts. The roles of peacekeepers also grew more The UN Secretariat continued to stable nations. The Human Security complex and risky in 2005: robust peace- improve its capacity to deploy peace- Report, wrote one of its UBC authors, keeping, including military operations to keeping operations immediately upon a showed that the UN has “played a criti- protect civilians in the DRC and Haiti, peace agreement. Although proposals for cal role in enhancing global security.” also cost lives: 121 peacekeepers died on a reserve military force did not win mission in 2005, including nine Member States’ approval at the 2005 The International Crisis Group in its Bangladeshi soldiers killed in an ambush World Summit, its Outcome Document end of the year “CrisisWatch” cited four in the DRC in February. did authorize the creation of a standing, conflict situations that had improved at on-call police capacity. the end of 2005: three of these were the The peacekeeping community also sites of UN peace operations—the confronted the ugly specter of sexual Peacekeeping missions became increas- DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and Afghanistan. exploitation and abuse by peacekeep- ingly “integrated” during the past year, ers, which Under-Secretary-General with Deputy Special Representatives of During a year of growth and renewed Jean-Marie Guéhenno has called “one the Secretary-General in several missions reliance on UN peace operations, the doubling as UN Resident Coordinators, UN’s objective has been to improve its of the most shameful episodes in UN ensuring that the humanitarian and capacities to deploy quickly and

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